Homology exists among the transforming sequences of avian and feline sarcoma viruses

Abstract

Fujinami sarcoma virus (FSV) of chickens does not contain nucleotide sequences related to the src gene of Rous sarcoma virus, but it carries unique sequences of at least 3000 bases, which are likely to code for the transforming protein of this virus. Using radioactive DNA complementary to FSV-unique sequences, we investigated the relatedness of FSV to other sarcoma-leukemia retroviruses in vertebrates. Under conditions of moderate stringency, no cross-hybridization was detected between FSV cDNA and RNAs of Rous sarcoma virus, Y73 avian sarcoma virus, several representative avian acute leukemia viruses, or Abelson murine leukemia virus. This cDNA, however, did hybridize with RNA of PRCII sarcoma virus of chickens to the extent of 56%. In addition, FSV cDNA was found to hybridize with RNAs of Gardner-Arnstein and Snyder-Theilen strains of feline sarcoma virus to the extent of 27% and 19%, respectively, but not with RNA of McDonough feline sarcoma virus. Studies on thermal denaturation of hybrids showed that the melting temperatures of the heteroduplexes of the FSV cDNA with RNAs of PRCII and Gardner-Arnstein feline sarcoma virus were 7 degrees C and 12 degrees C lower, respectively, compared with the melting temperature of the homologous hybrid of FSV, and suggested less than 10% mismatching in both heteroduplexes. These results indicate that nucleotide sequences closely related to at least a part of FSV-unique sequences are present in the genomes of other sarcoma viruses obtained in chickens and in cats.